I added i386 architecture, I installed the deb packages from the Brother homepage (http://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=eu_ot&lang=en&prod=hl3152cdw_eu&os=128), everything seemed to work perfect. When I installed the cups-wrapper package the printer was found, and later when I plugged in the USB cord, the printer also got recognizes with the correct type and a printer queue was automatically added. I don't get any error messages when printing test pages, the only problem is, that the printer doesn't print.

Can anybody give me a hint how to get the printer printing, respectively how to get any further information about the reason for not willing to print?

According to Brother's documentation, the printer needs a GDI data stream:http://support.brother.com/g/b/spec.aspx?c=eu_ot&lang=en&prod=hl3152cdw_eu. For future readers, the HL-3172CDW additionally supports PCL6 and Postscript which will work natively in X86_64. GDI only printers will only work with a pre-compiled, closed source binary "blob" from Brother. Brother also only provides an i386 "blob"; not an X86_64.

So you are basically stuck using Brothers Documentation. It is likely that your print jobs are dying at the blob. This can happen for the following reasons:1) The blob is poorly coded and fails2) Cups cannot find the blob,. The /opt directory is often used in the EU for 3rd party software but Cups in Debian is looking in /usr/share or /usr/lib.3) Cups finds the blob but cannot execute it due to permissions.

first - thanks for your reply, I really appreciate any help on that topic.

@peter_irich: I allready did this before I started this topic, but I again tried some different drivers from the cups administration interface, the best result was the printer endlessly producing blank sheets of paper. So no idea what else to tweak. @shed: I had a look at the error log, as you adviced, but even when I send a test page, there is no log-entry that helps me figuring out where the problem is.I don't wanna annoy you with miles of log output, but if you're in the mood, than you might wanna have a look at what happens during testpage printing a the code section at the bottom of this post. (I had to shorten it in the beginning, because the max number of letters was exceeded)

It's really weired, because I'm quite sure the printer was working on my old Debian system, which doesn't exist anymore and which I upgraded from wheezy over lenny to stretch.Could it be, that there is just a required package missing?

Whatever... I started a service-call at the brother service hotline and if they (or their documentation) will open up a solution for my problem, then I'll get back here and write a note.

Thanks for the hint. What is it, what cannot be found? All the mentioned files exist. I thought a line starting with 'D' indicates debug level. I would expect a serious printing error resulting in a line starting with A, C, E, W or X

I believe the component "filter's" your print jobs. When filters fail you typically see the printer powerup and print nothing/garbage/blanks.

A rough overview:Most print jobs originate as postscript files (printjob.ps) and if a printer is postscript capable can be sent directly to the printer.

Postscript was developed by Adobe and printer manufacturers had to pay royalties to Adobe to flash their printer ROM's with Adobe's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostScript. Adobe abandoned licensing several years ago and printer manufacturers now write their own postscript. Brothers = brscript3

HP developed PCL (Printer Command Language) that would take the original postscript print job and filter it to a form that HP printers understood. This PCL wikipedia entry has more information on the development of PCL and which versions support color, 1200dpi, duplex, etc.. This shifted some the processing workload from the printer to the computer.

Your printer does not support postscript or PCL but Brother has written a filter for it. Brother's Filter is purportedly GPL but no one can find the source code. Brother only provides the binary that was compiled from their source code on an older Ubuntu/Debian system. The references you provided indicate that it was compiled on a 32 bit system.

Back to your problem, you need to be sure that brothers filter is found by cups and runs. One hint is to try to run the filters individually as root.For example

to check the ownership/permissions.See this Ubuntu thread for problems with owner/permissionsDebian wise, I would try to replicate the owner:group permissions for the ghostscript filters (available online).

to see if it executes and what missing libraries come up.Ghostscript filters are installed in /usr/lib/share and cups definitely can access that directory

If all this seems like a lot of work and your time = money consider upgrading your printer to one that at least supports PCL6. On the other hand, if your are interested in learning and have the time, try the above and post back with additional questions.

In the same folder, there is a shell script filterhl3152cdw (code below). It executes without errors and seems to wait for some input, when executed without parameters.If I have a look at the /tmp/ folder, which seems to be read while trying to print a testpage, there are some files being created and removed in less than a second.

# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it# under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free# Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)# any later version.## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT# ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for# more details.## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with# this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple# Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA#

This link did the trick.I uninstalled the packages, installed what was mentioned in the next-to-last post from the link, started the printer and printed a test-page via usb-connection.I was not far from giving up, so thank you very much!

If I could, I would buy you a beer or two for your help and patience!Cheers,Martin